Approps panels work on omnibus

Defying expectations, House and Senate appropriations committees are making steady progress in writing an omnibus spending bill for the coming year, hammering away like shipbuilders in the desert, hoping for a winter flood to carry them out to sea.

Defense clerks spent Friday reading out a final agreement of the Pentagon’s budget, estimated near $518 billion. The homeland security title could be finished early this week. Agriculture, transportation, housing, justice and science are not far behind. And the push is on to work through the holiday and have most of the legislative text in place soon after Congress returns from Thanksgiving on Nov. 27.

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It’s still a fool’s errand in the eyes of many. And for sure, there are outliers.

Talks on the giant labor, education and health chapter are lagging because the chief House Republican negotiator, Rep. Denny Rehberg, was preoccupied so long with his Senate campaign in Montana. But enough progress has been made overall that even a reluctant White House is beginning to take notice of the committees’ persistence.

Indeed, if the fiscal cliff debt talks end up requiring more cuts from discretionary spending, an updated omnibus would be a far better vehicle for implementing new savings than the six-month stopgap bill that is keeping the government funded.

A second factor is Hurricane Sandy. Few expect a huge supplemental this winter in the midst of debt talks, but given the devastation in the Northeast, many believe Congress has to act before New Year’s Eve to at least release the remaining $5.4 billion in disaster aid reserve funds.

This could be done by including language in the omnibus package. Or as some suggest, the disaster aid bill could become a vehicle to which the larger spending package is attached.

The appropriations leadership was never happy with the deal struck last summer by President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), which put the whole government under a six-month continuing resolution pegged at $1.047 trillion in annual spending.

From the committees’ standpoint, it was a complete betrayal, tossing out months of work for political convenience before the elections. But rather than go off and sulk, the reaction has been to plunge back into writing a massive bill detailing how the $1.047 trillion might be better distributed — with more care than the CR allows.

No one seems discouraged that the same three men — Obama, Boehner and Reid — ultimately will decide whether the end product gets to the floor. Giving up is judged far worse.